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Oil Change

Was told by the BMW dealer shop that my oil should be changed by them? And not another lube shop? Said they will not use the correct filters. I am new here and not a mechanic or knowledgeable BMW person. I am just a new female BMW owner of a 2002 325i. Thanks for your help.

Welcome! And feel free to search the board for

whatever you feel might be oft discussed topics. These go back many years.
BMW dealers might say much to buffalo you into subjecting yourself into using their high priced services only. This one is easy enough to circumvent. Ask your independent service to tell you what brand filter they use and ask to see the box it came in. It is true that originally BMW filters tended to disintegrate when pushed to their recommended 15K miles oil changes. Most here shudder at the thought of letting their oil go unchanged for that long. Change you oil at least every 7500 miles if you believe us!
Mann or Fram filters are among those that are the acceptable brand names. Can't think of the other names now.
BMW also specs a higher standard synthetic oil than most indy's will use too. But again if you follow more frequent changes than the above mentioned 15K mile changes, you'll do OK with their synthetic oil.
Answer all your questions?

Now just tell me you have a manual trans in your car and I'll be super impressed!

carbon also causes failure of your motors VANOS valve timing
units - so keeping the inside of the motor CLEAN is important

a BMW Dealer is going to replace the important oil drain plug
o-ring every time and not over tighten the plug.
Failure to replace the drain plug o-ring will result in damaged
striped threads in the oil pan. Don't ask how expensive that
error is to correct!

if your car has an Automatic Transmission?,
and has greater than 30,000 miles? - have a BMW dealer
replace the special Auto Trans oil and filter for
long term reliability.

Re: Oil Change

Do change your oil at most every 5K miles. Use a quality filter such as Mann, Bosch, Mahle, Knecht. Most gas stations us the cheapest filter, and you do not want that. Need to use the proper oil, which is usually Mobil 1 0-40.
Since most gas stations will not do that--using anyone but a BMW/foreign private repair shop is the way to go. You can also buy the filter and oil and only have the shop do the work. Oil goes for about $8.50 a quart from a parts store and you will probably need 7. The filter is about $10. NEVER, NEVER go to one of these quick lube places. You are going to have a youngster with little experience and/or the worse laborer work on the car and can cause major damage--(my personal experience. ALSO, you can buy, as I did, a dozen washers from the BMW dealer for the oil drain plug and give it to the shop you have do the work. (cost of a plug washer is 5 cents at the dealer.) Most likely they may not have one and to reuse the old one is not good. BE AWARE--that many local shops (not dealers) look to build up the job and use the oil change as an opportunity to take advantage of customers--especially women.
PS--ignore the guy below who posted that he is impressed with women who have manual trans--my daughter at 17 was driving one and the guys were wondering how SHE could do that when they could not. As you know, if you take an interest you will maintain the car perfectly. In case you did not hear me--NEVER use a quick lube place like Jiffy Lube. I can tell your horror stories about that and the grease money in the pit who does not give a damm about his work or the car. (Remember that if he strips the drain threads--big dollars you will pay and they will deny everthing. OR, as was almost my case---did not tighted filter properly and it leaked badly--I caught it before needing a $8K new engine in that car (not BMW))

Completely agree, the problem was resolved a long

Re: I think those oil filters were improved and the

The nearest BMW dealer to me gets $120 for an oil change. I buy all the materials from them and can do the change for $60. Whatever you deicide to use for oil, buy the BMW oil from the dealership, it's what they guarentee for themselves for the 15k mile interval. Don't go that long, go about 7500 miles between changes. BMW oil is basically European Spec Castrol 5w30. If you use another brand use the Castrol. The 330 engine takes 8 quarts. The dealership also uses MANN filters, if you buy the filter from the dealership, it comes with a new o-ring and crush washer for the drainplug.